In the spring of this year, Original Sin founder Gidon Coll planted a small orchard on his family’s old dairy farm in the Hudson Valley. The orchard features 30 varieties of apples including heirloom apples such as the Newtown Pippin, Roxbury Russet and Harrison Crab as well as U.K. cider apples such as Kingston Black, Ashmead’s Kernal and Yarlington Mills. The orchard contains several unusual apple varieties, including Kazakh apple trees (apples are believed to originate from the Tien Shan Mountain range in Kazakhstan). Next year, the orchard will be doubled to include 60 varieties of apples from 8 different countries. The majority of the apples planted have traditionally been used for hard cider production.
If there is one staple that just about every American cider maker produces besides good, old “cider,” it has to be cherry cider. I would like to believe that there was some divine intervention by the goddess Pomona to inspire such a blend but, realistically, it is most likely the result of local availability. Most cherries are grown in temperate regions, with the Pacific Northwest, Michigan, and (to a much lesser extent) the Hudson Valley producing the bulk of the country’s cherries. Notice a similarity between cherry growing regions and apple ones? Exactly.
But geographical conveniences aside, there is still something incredibly satisfying about cherry cider. The acidity of a well made cider can elevate common sweet cherries from bland to brilliant, while cider’s complexity and tannic structure can give weight to tart cherries and bring out their flavor. For me, cherry ciders are a way to extend the delicious taste of too-short cherry growing season well into the fall where these ciders make an ideal pairing for the richer dishes and sturdier herbs that I forgot once summer vegetables started to appear at the local farmstand.
The flavor profile of cherry cider can vary greatly; each cider maker has the opportunity to showcase their own interpretation of the pairing. We sampled several cherry ciders from around the country to find some favorites to recommend.
Original Article Here: Serious Eats
We came across a champagne-y hard cider from Original Sin Cider that used an apple called the Newtown Pippin. Further in-depth research, sourced from the back of the bottle, revealed some significant findings of the apple’s influence on American history. It’s said that it established the U.S. fruit export industry as Queen Victoria liked them so much she had the import duties lifted on them. Here’s 5 things on apples that you might not have known about.
5. Skin on
Learn to eat apple skins since two thirds of the fiber and loads of antioxidants are in them.
4. Rose family?
Apples are actually a member of the rose family. Personally, we don’t see the connection.
3. Poison!
Apple seeds contain small amounts of amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside, a mild poison. Don’t worry, it’s not enough to hurt us but does keep the birds away.
2. Big family
7500 apples varieties grow around the world and the US grows 2500 of them. But the only one native to North America is the Crabapple.
1. Adam’s
The Adam’s apple that’s seen in males because of the notion that the forbidden fruit got lodged in Adam’s throat, even though the bible never mentions the fruit being an apple.
Original Article Here: Taste Terminal
Queens, we know thee as a sprawling borough with endless neighborhoods full of ever-changing culinary discovery.
The borough is also the birthplace of the legendary Newton Pippin apple, the star of Original Sin Cider’s brand-new single-varietal cider ($12 for 750 ml).
The grassy-green Newton Pippin, originally discovered in 1740 in what is now Elmhurst, Queens, caused Thomas Jefferson to declare from France, “They have no apples here to compare with our Newtown Pippin.”
Now, Original Sin Cider’s Gidon Coll has harnessed the apple’s distinctive character for his Newton Pippin Hard Cider, which is available in New York this week for the first time.
Fermented to dryness, the tart cider’s light fizz strikes a balance with the yeastiness of Champagne yeast and a low residual sugar content. Clean and tasting faintly of lemons, it cuts through fish or even Indian takeout.
Coll is launching Cherry Tree Hard Cider this week as well ($12 for 750 ml). Golden and Russet apples are blended with the juice of tart cherries for a heavier, richer cider. The sweet, rosy pink cider is beautiful in the glass and an ideal match with a hunk of cheddar or served alongside a duck breast. We’re nominating it as our rosé of fall.
Original Article Here: Tasting Table
